It’s about three and a half months late, but it’s finally time for hockey. It feels darn good to say that.

The Islanders host the Devils tonight at the Coliseum and for the 18th straight season Martin Brodeur will get the start in net on opening night for New Jersey. He’s clearly an immortal vampire, there’s really no other reasonable explanation. The Devils will be without Zach Parise who signed a mega-deal in Minnesota during the summer. Other than that, they’re really just about the same Devils as usual: Elias, Zajac, Kovalchuk, Zubrus, and that hot shot kid Adam Henrique.

One note from yesterday that’s interesting; Brian Strait getting put through waivers came as a surprise over at SB Nation blog Pensburgh.

The biggest surprise is Brian Strait. Strait played in the Penguins last few playoff games, after Paul Martin was injured and was seen as a guy likely to make the NHL roster. To expose him to waivers is a risk, but also today is a day when many players league wide have hit the wire and could be claimed, so it’s as good a day as any to try and sneak him down.

The Pens couldn’t sneak him through waivers and it sounds like he could be an interesting pickup.

Here are your rule changes for 2013 that were previously made over the summer:

Here's a picture of the 2012-2013 NHL rule changes summary that was posted in the Sens dressing room pic.twitter.com/ia4NXs2a